I have a customer that is a medical doctor's office who has AT&T Uverse for their internet service. They called me this morning to say that their internet was down. When I arrived I tried the old reboot the modem trick and when that didn't work I called AT&T business support. He ran some tests and was unable to access the modem so he said they would need to send a technician out to fix it.

The earliest appointment they had was on Saturday July 13 and keep in mind this is Tuesday July 9 which means 5 days without internet!!!

I explained to him that the office isn't even open on Saturdays and was told that I would have to make an appointment for the following Monday July 15 but I took the Saturday appointment out of desperation. The support person told me that they could ask the supervisor to "escalate" it because it is a business and he put me on hold for a few minutes. When he came back he said that the supervisor declined to escalate the ticket because they were very busy. He asked me if there had been any severe weather in our area and I told him it had been over a week since the last rain. He said they don't usually decline to escalate unless it's due to recent outages as a result of severe weather. He offered to try his manager but they were out to lunch. He said he would call me back within 2 hours and I never heard from him again.

My question for everyone here in spiceworld is what else can I do to try and get them to fix this internet before Saturday? Is there a special phone number where I can call and get someone with the authority to make this happen? As it is right now they are writing appointments in a paper calendar book and having to go find the patient's physical charts. They can't verify patient's insurance, they can't send or receive email, they can't process referrals or medicine refill requests from pharmacies, etc.

I have mentioned getting a 4G device like a Verizon JetPack but the none of the office computers are WiFi capable (which then means buying and installing adapters). This is honestly the worst service I've seen from any ISP in 20 years. What are my options?

This person is a verified professional.

I sent you a private message to collect your account details and get this issue escalated.

I saw some others in this thread mention services with an SLA, which is a great option if your internet connection is critical for your business, but typically higher cost. We also have wireless backup solutions which could work to keep you connected in the event of an outage. You can find more here on our Wireless Broadband page.

19 Replies

With this type of customer server, I'd seriously consider moving to a different ISP. But to answer your question, no I'm sorry I don't know how to get ATT to do what they need to do, without becoming a screaming idiot.

May want to try emailing all email addresses you can find, and tweeting their main account, because this is ridiculous.

I have one customer using U-Verse and I don't believe there is an SLA. I've only had a couple of issues and it was a few days before someone could come out. Customer has multiple ISP circuits so it wasn't really an issue. When there is a problem with their traditional business fiber product (forget the name), it's never taken longer than 2 hours to have someone onsite but that service is much, MUCH more expensive.

You can absolutely get routers that will take a 4G air card and plug that into your normal LAN - there is no need for WiFi adapters for the workstations. Draytek is a brand I have bought for that capability in the past.

AT&T is working hard to abandon copper in my area, since they are obligated to share it with CLEC's. Fiber is tariffed differently.

I told my sister she should avoid the AT&T fiber she was being pushed to after the crappy performance of her DSL - again, small dental office, no leverage with "Corporate" level accounts with AT&T. She avoided Comcast Business from inertia, but finally bit the bullet and got new desk phones as well.

This is a good reason to go shopping for alternatives, whether coax broadband or 4G/LTE.

With this type of customer server, I'd seriously consider moving to a different ISP. But to answer your question, no I'm sorry I don't know how to get ATT to do what they need to do, without becoming a screaming idiot.

May want to try emailing all email addresses you can find, and tweeting their main account, because this is ridiculous.

Good luck to you.

Yeah I mentioned switching his phone and internet service to a better provider and he said he will start calling around tomorrow.

One HUGE [rpblem with many large corporations like AT&T is the individual customer is powerless.

You can absolutely get routers that will take a 4G air card and plug that into your normal LAN - there is no need for WiFi adapters for the workstations. Draytek is a brand I have bought for that capability in the past.

AT&T is working hard to abandon copper in my area, since they are obligated to share it with CLEC's. Fiber is tariffed differently.

I told my sister she should avoid the AT&T fiber she was being pushed to after the crappy performance of her DSL - again, small dental office, no leverage with "Corporate" level accounts with AT&T. She avoided Comcast Business from inertia, but finally bit the bullet and got new desk phones as well.

This is a good reason to go shopping for alternatives, whether coax broadband or 4G/LTE.

I totally agree. I think AT&T is trying to push away customers that are still on copper. That may be what I'm dealing with now. Which is all the more reason to find a better service provider. I had another customer that the only service she thought she could get was AT&T DSL. She called me because it was "slow" and when I checked the speed it was 512Kbps down and 256Kbps up and she had to pay $50 a month for that! I haven't seen "Kbps" in a speedtest since 2000! I called their support thinking something was wrong with her modem and was told that it was the correct speed for her service area. I told her to call Comcast and they installed new service with 75Mbps two days later. Maybe they were great a long time ago but my personal experience with AT&T has been nothing but horrible lately.

If they aren't buying the business version of Uverse then they are getting what they paid for. If they are paying for business class service then this is unacceptable. Unless you have business service with an SLA you are kind of out of luck.

You could still use something like a jetpack if have a real router with multiple ports you could use a wireless bridge and let the router send traffic over the jetpack without buying adapters for each machine.

Normally, in the UK at least with my ISP, they test the line to the premises and if that is OK but the modem misbehaves (and they confirm that with a telephone discussion) they then just ship another.

My guess is that you are stuck and will have to wait. Have a look at the contract and see if they breech the terms of it.

When I spoke with the AT&T tech he supposedly ran some tests and wasn't able to communicate with the modem. I was able to login to the Web interface of the modem and it seemed to be operating normally. Also, they are still able to access any resources on the local network like printers and shared folders just no internet. The only indicator there was a problem, besides the lack of internet, was a red light on the modem next to the word "Service". The Power, Ethernet, Wireless, and Broadband 1 and 2 were all lit up green but Service was red. I suspect that it isn't a problem with the actual modem but rather something with the line or equipment on AT&T's side.

I would have requested to speak directly with said manager. If offered a callback, i'd have accepted, but when the time came and went I'd have called them again and again and again until I got a satisfactory response. I had a similar issue with my ISP (home internet, not ATT because I live in Canada) a few years ago. I shared a house with another couple (I lived in a basement suite) and when they moved out, the cable company came out to disconnect them, but disconnected me instead. When I learned of the problem and phoned them, they said it'd be about a week. I raised holy hell with them and had a technician there on a Sunday :)

It sounds like the business is using a residential connection. If so, there's literally nothing you can do to get them up faster. After the fact you may want to advise them to move to something intended for business with an SLA.

I sent you a private message to collect your account details and get this issue escalated.

I saw some others in this thread mention services with an SLA, which is a great option if your internet connection is critical for your business, but typically higher cost. We also have wireless backup solutions which could work to keep you connected in the event of an outage. You can find more here on our Wireless Broadband page.

I sent you a private message to collect your account details and get this issue escalated.

I saw some others in this thread mention services with an SLA, which is a great option if your internet connection is critical for your business, but typically higher cost. We also have wireless backup solutions which could work to keep you connected in the event of an outage. You can find more here on our Wireless Broadband page.

Thanks Charlie. I replied to your private message with the details. I was able to use the link in a message AT&T sent to move the appointment to Thursday 2-4p which was yesterday. However, the tech didn't show despite getting text messages that they were still coming. Now I have no clue when (or if) they will arrive and I have no idea what to tell the doctors and staff.